The present invention relates to a bicycle hub assembly that has two sets of bearing at one end which is connected to a sprocket so as to prolong the life of use of the hub assembly.
A conventional bicycle hub assembly is shown in FIG. 4 and generally includes a casing 1 with an axle 2 extending therethrough and two sets of bearing 5, 50 are respectively received in two ends of the casing 1 so that the axle 2 can be rotated independently. One end of the casing 1 is cooperated with a sprocket 3 which is fixed to a connection member 4. In order to cooperated with the connection member 4, the casing 1 has one large open end for receiving the bearing 50 and the other is a small open end with which the connection member 4 and the bearing 5 can be engaged. It is to be noted that the bearing 50 includes larger beads 500 and the bearing 5 can only equipped with smaller beads 6 because the bearing 5 is mounted on the connection member 4. The smaller beads 6 cannot be used for a long period of time because of the load and friction. Therefore, the bearing 5 is damaged earlier than the bearing 50.
The present invention intends to provide a bicycle hub assembly wherein there are two sets of bearing mounted on the connection member.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bicycle hub assembly which comprises a casing having two flanges extending outward from two ends thereof and a passage is defined through the casing so that an axle extends through the passage. An stepped shoulder extends inward from an inner periphery of the passage and a first bearing is mounted to the axle and engaged with a first open end of the casing.
A base member is mounted to the axle and located close to a second open end. An end of the base member contacts against the stepped shoulder and two sets of beads are respectively engaged with two grooves defined in an inner periphery of a longitudinal through hole in the base member. Two retaining rings are respectively engaged with two open ends of the base member to restrain longitudinal movement of the beads. Two nuts are respectively threadedly connected to the axle and positioning the two retaining rings.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a bicycle hub assembly wherein the end connected with the sprocket of the casing includes two sets of beads so that the beads can be used for a long period of time.
The present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention.